Fighting the Odds: The Life of Senator Frank Church

Frank Church, a liberal Democrat, represented conservative Republican Idaho in the Senate for 24 years, which means that there's a lot to cover in a biography. Probably what's still needed is a few more Church books each focusing on aspects of his career. But for a solidly filled-in overview of it all, this one will do just fine: It covers all of the territory, and the detail is extensive. These authors (notably Gramer, who started on it before Ashby) had one huge advantage though that no one else will ever have: Extensive interviews with Church, conducted mostly in his latter years in the Senate. More removed historian views may prove useful later, but this book will always be a touchstone on any research relating to Frank Church.

This biography of Frank Church is a well researched and written book. The understanding gained from this book of why "liberal" members of Congress from the west act the way they do is considerable. Frank Church beat the odds in that he was a Democrat from a state that was and still is largely republican. The authors in choosing what to focus on only briefly touched on his impact on environmental issues and instead focused on the issues that got him elected repeatedly. It is an essential read to further the understanding of the post war era in American Politics.

Yes, this is the exhaustive biographical treatment of Senator Frank Church, hero or villian to many of those in Idaho who were here before he was voted out of office in 1980.The authors clearly poured over the official papers and interviewed many who knew Frank Church. After a while the book takes on something like a Chinese water torture approach piling fact upon fact, without benefit of much analysis of what it meant. If one is looking for additional insight or original investigation of why Church lost in 1980, for example, you will not find it here. Instead co-author Rod Gramer recycles much of his work covering the election. On the other had, the treatment of the 1956 election is fascinating, maybe because I was not yet born.This book has great stuff on Congressional battles over Vietnam and on Church's committee that investigated the CIA.The one flat spot in this book is it's weak coverage of Church's considerable influence on natural resource policy that emerged from Congress in the 1960s and 1970s. The book was written in 1984 and therefore does not benefit from the point of time in fully understanding the impact of the legislation in the 1970s affecting the management of federal forests and rangelands.For example, Sen. Church chaired a committee that investigated the clearcutting practices on National Forests. The results of this investigation was the issuance of the "Church Guidelines" on forest practices which were later incorporated into the 1976 National Forest Management Act. The impact of NFMA on the management of National Forests extends now for more than a quarter of a century. Yet one will not find much of anything about the investigation of clearcutting.Readers were also unfortunately spared the complexities of the wilderness legislation in Idaho and the protection of wild and scenic rivers. Church's strong support for this legislation eroded his support in traditionally Democrat leaning counties dominated by timbering jobs, which made the difference in 1980 when he lost by 4,262 votes.I guess this means someone could still write a book about Frank Church and his role in natural resource policy.And you should still buy this one.

This is the definitive biography on one of the true greats in Idaho politics, Frank Church. In a land of forked tongues, he was a straight shooter. His loss was one not only for the west, but for the entire country. Frank Church was the true spirit of the West. May it rise again.